Geometry of Light

A building can seem complete until someone enters the frame. Then a shoulder, a glance or the uneven rhythm of a step changes the balance. At Villa La Rotonda, I would like us to work with that encounter: the precision of architecture and the living presence of a person.

For three days, six photographers and three models will come together in Vicenza to make images at our own pace. We will work in small groups, giving each photographer time to consider a composition, speak with a model and explore a different approach. There is room for a carefully constructed image and for the unanticipated gesture that makes us reconsider it.

A model brings more than a figure to place between columns. She brings her own sense of movement, her attention and her response to the space. Our photographs will develop through that exchange. We might begin with symmetry and find that a slight departure from it gives the picture its life; we might move closer until the architecture is present only as light.

Meet the Model is a shared photographic production, with the pleasure of spending time together at its centre. It is neither a course nor a workshop. You do not have to follow a sequence of lessons or arrive with a finished project: bring the pictures you would like to attempt and the curiosity to discover others.

I will be with you throughout, available for a conversation about a photograph or a practical question on set. If you would like help understanding a light, a technique or a piece of equipment, I will gladly give a short explanation and try it with you. This informal assistance is offered entirely free of charge.

The spaces used for photography are reserved for our production. The villa is our photographic setting; it is not presented as overnight accommodation. Where the property reserved for an event also provides lodging, we offer that lodging without a supplement because the reservation is already a production expense. Taking up such accommodation is optional and does not change the participation fee.

Away from the cameras, there will be time for the pleasures of the local table and the conversations that give a small group its character. Meals are included in the participation fee; drinks remain at each person’s own expense.

Designed by Andrea Palladio, Villa Almerico Capra, known as La Rotonda, stands near Vicenza. Its central domed hall and four temple-like porticoes give the building a remarkable coherence, while each side addresses the surrounding landscape differently.

For our images, that relationship offers a precise visual language: repeated forms, openings, steps and the passage from open brightness into shelter. A human figure can establish scale, interrupt a rhythm or draw our attention to an otherwise overlooked interval.

I am drawn to the possibility of making photographs that remain intimate within such a celebrated setting. A face need not compete with the building. We can allow the architecture to give it room, and allow a small human gesture to make us see the architecture afresh.

Over many years of working as a photographer, and of running both a photographic studio and an equipment-hire service, I came to understand what photographers truly hope to find when they arrive on a set. Not simply more equipment, but the freedom to make an image without being stopped by the absence of the right tool.

This is what London Photographic Workshop places at your disposal: a rare, complete photographic production, brought together in one place and made available to you for the duration of the event. It is the kind of equipment most photographers encounter only in fragments, over many years, and which would cost a considerable sum to hire for a three-day production.

You will be able to work with HASSELBLAD X2D II cameras and a selection of HASSELBLAD lenses; SUNBOUNCE natural-light systems, including reflectors, screens, Sun-Swatter and Sun-Cage; PROFOTO, BRONCOLOR and BOWENS studio flash; professional battery-powered PROFOTO flash, with a complete selection of modifiers; LEE Filters and professional matte boxes; MANFROTTO photographic tripods; and MATTHEWS grip equipment.

This is not equipment assembled for display. It is a working set of serious tools: the cameras, light, modifiers and support systems that allow an idea to become a photograph when the moment arrives.

Respect is part of the photographic language, not an administrative footnote. All models and participants must be eighteen or older. The models determine their individual nudity and posing boundaries. Consent is specific, ongoing and may be withdrawn at any time. No participant may touch a model without explicit permission. No phones, spectators or behind-the-scenes recording on closed sets.

Images may not be published, exhibited, sold or submitted to competitions outside the agreed model-release terms. No generative-AI training or synthetic alteration of a model’s body or identity. A private changing and resting area must always be available. Models receive proper breaks, meals, accommodation and transport support.

Alcohol is served only after photography has finished for the day. Before each session, the artistic director holds a short consent check-in covering wardrobe, nudity level, location, participating photographers and intended images.